The Doctor's Christmas Proposal

by Laura Iding

  “She can’t give up. Have her kids been in to see her?” Dana glanced into the room.

  “Not yet, but they’re on their way.” Amy shrugged. “Maybe you’ll have better luck getting through to her.”

  Dana fully intended to try.

  The moment they sat down for report, the call came in from the Center for Organ Donations. “There’s a donor up in the neuro ICU. Jessica Kincade is a match. Get her ready—she’s going to the OR for a double lung transplant.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  DANA RUSHED AROUND to make sure every detail was taken care of for Jessica’s surgery. Although Jessica had been an patient in the ICU for the past week, there were still tubes of blood to draw for the lab, X-rays to take, and Mitch had requested a special catheter to be placed in her heart prior to going to the OR.

  During the preparations Dana could only hope and pray the operation would be a success. Sad to think someone else had had to lose their life in order for this miracle to happen. Thank God for the wonderful family who’d turned tragedy into the gift of life.

  She called Rick and left yet another message. Where was he anyway? He’d confessed to having a gambling problem, but she’d thought he’d changed his ways. For the kids’ sake, she hoped he had.

  She left a message for Jessica’s mother too. In ten minutes, Jessica’s mother arrived at the bedside with the kids.

  Wendy and Chad looked scared to death and Dana couldn’t blame them. But they both gave their mother a kiss before Dana wheeled Jessica away to the operating suite.

  After she dropped Jessica off in the OR, she found the kids seated in the waiting room outside the ICU, gloomy expressions on their faces. She wondered where their grandmother was.

  “Hey, no long faces. This is a miracle.” Dana sat between them. “Your mom is getting a new set of lungs. What better Christmas present could you ask for?”

  Wendy gave her a faint smile. “I know I asked for new lungs for my mommy.” Her lower lip trembled. “But I changed my mind. I don’t want her to get a new set of lungs. What if she dies?”

  Dana had been tempted to kick the transplant surgeon for his rather thoughtless comment in front of the children, emphasizing how serious the surgery was and how Jessica’s condition was critical. “Wendy, your mother needs this surgery to get better. The doctors have done lung transplants before very successfully. I’m sure your mom will come through the surgery just fine, you’ll see.”

  “Do we have to go to the waiting room?” Chad asked.

  She didn’t want to send them there, so far away from the ICU. Especially since she had another patient to take care of. “Why don’t you stay here for a little while and watch television?” There was no one else using the waiting area, and that way she could keep an eye on the kids herself. “I’ll come back and let you know what’s going on.”

  Chad and Wendy perked up at that.

  “Is your grandmother coming back for you?” Dana asked.

  “Yes. But I miss my daddy.” Wendy looked as if she might cry again.

  “I know you do.” Dana wondered if their father had picked up her message yet.

  Dana hurried back into the ICU to check on her patient. Mrs. Sanchez had gotten extremely sick from a bout of the flu but after two days in the ICU she seemed much better. Dana figured by the next day, the breathing tube should be able to come out and Mrs. Sanchez would be transferred to the floor.

  Another nice Christmas present. Right up there with a new set of lungs.

  Dana’s shift seemed to crawl by, although she kept busy enough helping others. When she got a call from the operating room the only thing they’d tell her was that the surgery was going well and that they’d finished with the donor patient and had started on Jessica’s transplant.

  Dana hurried out to the waiting room to let the kids know. “Things are going very well,” she informed them. Then she looked around with a frown. “Your grandmother isn’t back yet?”

  Chad frowned. “It’s been snowing. Maybe she’s stuck.”

  Trying to hide her concern, Dana murmured something that could be taken for agreement. Dana felt awful though about these two kids spending Christmas Eve alone in an ICU waiting room. She’d have to call Jessica’s mother’s house to see if she answered.

  “Jingle bells!” Wendy exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

  What? Then Dana heard them, too, the distinct sound of jingling bells. When she glanced down the hall she saw a man dressed up as Santa, lugging a tree and a pack of presents as he strode toward them.

  Wendy’s eyes grew as round as saucers. “Look!”

  Not until the Santa figure came closer did she recognize the man behind the beard.

  Mitch.

  As upset as she was with him, her heart did a funny little flip in her chest.

  “Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.” He winked at Chad and Wendy. “Come on, kids, I need your help to decorate your mom’s room so she’ll see Christmas when she gets out of surgery.”

  Dana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I’m not sure the hospital rules allow Christmas trees in patients’ rooms.”

  “Rules, schmooles. It’s Christmas.” Mitch proceeded to head straight into the ICU and the two kids dutifully followed.

  Surprised, Dana trailed after them. She wasn’t really against the idea of decorating Jessica’s room and anything that helped get the kids’ minds off their mother’s surgery was a good thing, in her opinion.

  She listened to the laughter and giggles coming from Jessica’s room as she took care of Mrs. Sanchez. The three of them, Mitch, Wendy and Chad, were decorating the tree with the ornaments Mitch had brought. Before she could make the call to Jessica’s mother’s house, one of the ED nurses rang up. “Dana? I have a woman down here who claims she left two kids up in your waiting room.”

  “Yes. Is she all right?” Dana asked.

  “Her car went into the ditch and they brought her here to so we could check her over. She’s fine, though. We should be able to release her soon.”

  Dana sighed in relief. “Sounds good. Let her know the kids are doing fine up here.”

  A while later, she went in to see how they’d decorated the room. Mitch had several presents under the tree and he brightened when she walked in.

  “There’s a box under here with your name on it, Dana.”

  “Open it! Come on, open it!” Wendy jumped up and down with excitement.

  “I’m working,” she protested. Then she noticed several other boxes of a similar size under the tree for Wendy, Chad and even Mitch. Curious, she glanced at her gift. “I’ll open mine if you open yours.”

  “All right.” Mitch nodded. He pulled up several chairs for them to sit around the tree.

  “Where’s your beard?” she asked. He was still dressed in his red Santa suit, but there was no sign of the fluffy white beard.

  “I took it off. Too itchy.”

  She grinned. “Yeah, I bet.” When their gazes met in a moment of understanding, she tore her gaze away with an effort then carefully opened her present. Never had she been a tear-open-the-wrapping-to-get-to-the-gift-inside kind of person. She’d always taken her time, preserving the pretty paper, a hold-over from her mother’s way of doing things.

  “Takes you long enough,” Chad complained.

  “I’m getting it.” Dana slid her thumb under the last piece of adhesive and drew out the box. Holding her breath, she opened it. Nestled inside the tissue paper was a beautiful hand-blown ornament in the shape of an angel. When she drew it out of the box, she saw that her mother’s name was etched on the front of the angel’s gown and the pink breast-cancer ribbon embedded into the glass beside her name. “Oh,” she gasped, tears pricking her eyes. “It’s beautiful.”

  Mitch handed each of the kids a similarly wrapped present. “In our family, Christmas is a time for remembering people.” Mitch said as the kids tore open their own gifts. “We have Christmas ornaments made for all the people we love the most. Each year,
we pull them out and hang them on the tree, and then we talk about our memories.”

  “That’s a beautiful tradition,” Dana murmured. Something her mother would have wholeheartedly embraced.

  Chad and Wendy pulled out their ornaments from their respective boxes, a Christmas angel for their mother and one for their father.

  “What about yours, Mitch?” Dana asked, once Wendy and Chad had oohed and aahed over their ornaments.

  He took the box Chad handed him and opened it. Dana caught her breath when she saw he’d wrapped the ornament he’d bought for Jason two years ago. Jason’s name was clearly etched on the front.

  “This is just like a Christmas angel to me,” Mitch said in a husky tone. “And I decided it was time to hang this ornament on a special Christmas tree, like this one.”

  Dana didn’t know what to say when Mitch hung the ornament on the tree. She was proud of how he seemed to have made peace with his loss, but what exactly did that mean for the two of them? Would he risk having another family? She didn’t know.

  Yet his vulnerability only made her love him more.

  There were other presents under the tree for Chad and Wendy, but neither of them seemed at all interested in the wrapped packages. Instead, they wanted to sit around and tell their Christmas angel stories.

  They hadn’t gotten very far when Caryn poked her head into the room. “Dana? The OR is on line one for you.”

  Jessica! Dana jumped up from her seat. “I’ll be right back,” she told them as she ran from the room.

  She picked up the phone. “This is Dana.”

  “Jessica’s just about finished with surgery. We’re bringing her over in about ten minutes. She’s relatively stable, for a double lung transplant.”

  “Great. We’ll be ready.” Dana replaced the phone and dashed back into the room. “Your mom is coming out of surgery in about ten minutes.”

  “Really?” Wendy clutched her mother’s angel ornament to her chest. “Can we see her?”

  “Of course you can, but first you’ll have to give us a little time to get her settled in.” Dana glanced over at Mitch for help. He quickly gathered the presents under the tree and took charge.

  “All right, we have to go back out to the waiting room for a little while. You don’t want to get in the doctor’s and nurses way, do you?” Mitch headed for the door. “How about you use this time to open your presents, hmm?”

  When Wendy looked as if she might protest, Chad grabbed her hand. “Come on, Wendy, put your angel ornament on the tree so Mom can see it when she wakes up. Then let’s go. The sooner we go, the sooner they can get Mom back in her room.”

  “All right.” Reluctantly, Wendy did as she was told.

  The kids followed Mitch out to the waiting room while Dana prepared the room for Jessica’s arrival. After a silent internal debate, she left the tree where it was. The practice of placing fresh post-op transplant patients in isolation wasn’t followed any more so, as far as she was concerned, the fake tree didn’t pose a threat any more than the supplies in the room did.

  Jessica was rolled through the doors and Dana was kept busy as she connected her to the monitors, checked her dressings, her vital signs and her ventilator settings. Her pulmonary status was the most important part of her post-operative care so Dana made sure she double-checked everything.

  Mitch, as the intensivist on duty, came into the room a while later, dressed in his scrubs with his stethoscope around his neck. Dana appreciated that he’d taken the time to make sure the kids were settled in the waiting room first, especially since there wasn’t much he could do for Jessica until the transplant surgeons were satisfied she wasn’t bleeding and turned over her pulmonary care to him.

  “I’m almost ready for the kids to come in,” Dana murmured to him, when they were left alone in the room.

  “Good.” Mitch gave her a tired smile. “They’ll be glad to see her, even if the effects of the anesthesia haven’t quite worn off yet. Oh, and their grandmother is here now.”

  “Good. I’m happy to hear that,” Dana confessed. “I’ll go get them, then.”

  “I’ll come with you.” To her surprise, Mitch followed her out to the waiting area. When Dana started to explain things to the kids, Chad suddenly shouted, “Dad!”

  Pausing in mid-sentence, Dana spun around. Sure enough, Rick came rushing in.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been plowing the roads all day and didn’t get your message about the surgery until now.” His eyes were a little wild. “How is she?”

  “Fine. She’s out of surgery and I was just explaining to the kids that she’ll probably be out of it for a while yet.”

  “Thank God.” Rick closed his eyes for a moment in relief. “I’ve been working a second job, plowing the streets for the city, to earn back the money I’d lost, to help prove to Jess I’m serious this time.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But I wasn’t planning on non-stop snow either. Especially at Christmas.”

  Dana wondered how the kids’ grandmother would treat him, but she needn’t have worried. The two adults greeted each other with wary politeness.

  “I’ll take all of you in to see her now, if you like.”

  The entire family eagerly followed her into the unit. Rick stood at his wife’s bedside with his arms around each of his children, their grandmother close by. Dana thought it was too bad Jessica wasn’t awake to appreciate the strength of her family’s support.

  Dana had taken a few steps backward, trying to edge out of the room, when Jessica opened her eyes and looked right at her mother, husband and children. Then her gaze shifted to the tree just behind them and Dana would swear her eyes crinkled in a smile before they drifted shut again.

  After a few minutes Chad and Wendy explained to their dad and their grandmother about the Christmas angels, and Rick seemed impressed that he’d been included, too.

  They weren’t ready to leave until after Dana’s shift was over. Wendy threw her arms around Mitch’s waist to give him a hug. “This was the best Christmas ever.”

  Mitch stroked a hand over her bright hair. “I’m glad.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for what you did for our family,” Rick said to Dana and Mitch.

  “You’re welcome.” Dana was so glad everything had worked out for the Kincade family, at least for the moment, barring any complications with Jessica’s surgery.

  Rick left with the kids, while Jessica’s mother stayed with her daughter. Once they were alone, Mitch grasped Dana’s arm. “Do you have a minute?”

  She wanted to tell him she didn’t, because being with him like this was too painful. Reluctantly, she followed him into the lounge area, which was glaringly empty now that Jessica’s kids had left with their Christmas presents.

  “Dana, I’d like a chance to explain.” His earnest expression tore a ragged hole in her heart.

  His discarded Santa suit in the corner reminded her of how far he’d come. The man who’d lost interest in Christmas had donned a Santa suit for the sake of his patient’s children. How could she say no? “All right.”

  He hesitated, as if suddenly unsure of himself. The confident Dr. Mitch Reynolds was never uncertain. “I told you I was a mess after losing Jason, but you were right, I did leave out a part of the story. The reaction of my family. I’m sure they meant well, but I couldn’t stand their pity. And somehow I convinced myself they blamed me for the divorce. Mostly because I’d blamed myself.”

  Dana frowned. “Divorce takes two.”

  Mitch lifted a shoulder. “I coped differently and neglected Gwen. Either way, the final result was that I took the chance to escape. Without considering how my family would feel.”

  “I see.” She understood. Hadn’t she used a similar approach in the past? How many times had her relationships with men fizzled out, without her realizing she had been half the problem? She’d held herself aloof, reserved, afraid to get too close for fear of getting hurt.

  Even with Mitch.

  “I did a
pologize to my mother this morning.”

  “I’m glad.” Dana was horrified to realize she’d pulled away from Mitch during the time he’d needed her most. “I’m sorry. I had no right to judge you.”

  “Dana, don’t apologize. You were the one who taught me to love again.” Mitch pulled out a long envelope and handed it to her. “I’d already started to think about my family after I met you. These are the plane tickets I’d booked for us to go and see my family after the holidays.”

  Struck numb, she stared at the tickets. “You did?”

  “Yes.” He stepped closer, drawing her into his arms. “And I talked to Caryn about your schedule so I know you’re off, but if the dates don’t work for you we can change them.” He lowered his voice. “One thing I’m completely sure of is that we can do anything, Dana, if we love each other enough.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” She looped her arms around his waist and lifted her gaze to his. “I’d convinced myself there was no hope for a future.”

  “I love you, Dana.” He cupped her face with the palm of his hand. “You’ve brought me back to life, made me realize what I was missing. Without you I never would have learned to love again.”

  “I love you, too.” Dana flashed a tremulous smile. “Thank you for the beautiful angel ornament.”

  “You’re welcome. It’s after midnight.” He lowered his mouth to hers. “Merry Christmas, Dana.”

  “Merry Christmas, Mitch.” When she rose up on tiptoe to return the kiss she had the sense her mother would have approved completely.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked between kisses.

  She smiled through tears of sheer happiness. Talk about the best Christmas present ever. “Yes.”

  “And have children with me?”

  She gasped, and blinked to keep from crying again. “Yes. I’d love to have children with you. This will be the first of many Christmases we’ll share together.”

  “Together,” Mitch echoed. “I like the sound of that.”